Former Olympic alpine skier Chemmy Alcott ended up in the hospital with a collapsed lung after a vacation dive went badly wrong.
The 44-year-old British athlete was visiting Annecy, France, when she attempted a front flip from a five-meter diving platform and misjudged the rotation.
Instead of a clean landing, Alcott hit the water hard and later realized she was having trouble breathing.
“Most people badly time a front flip off a five-meter platform and get winded,” she joked in an Instagram video. “I apparently don’t do things by halves. Collapsed lung, chest drain and a very expensive lesson in rotation.”
Alcott said the situation “escalated quickly” after the hard landing.
“Turns out 5 metres is quite a long way to discover you’ve got the rotation wrong,” she wrote.
The mom of two was diagnosed with a collapsed lung and needed a chest drain, commonly called a chest tube in the U.S., to remove trapped air from around the lung.
She also spent several nights in the hospital — definitely not part of the vacation plan.
“One badly timed front flip. One very hard landing. One collapsed lung. One chest drain. And a few more hospital overnights than were on the holiday itinerary,” Alcott wrote.
Despite the painful accident, she kept her sense of humor.
“I absolutely LOVED Annecy… but I’m not entirely sure it loved me back. 😂”
Alcott shared video of the dive, which appeared to show her landing feet-first in the water. The clip then cut to photos of her in a hospital gown and another image showing the chest drain.
Incredibly, Alcott said she actually climbed back onto the platform and jumped again almost immediately because she was embarrassed about the first attempt.
“I actually went back up straight away in embarrassment and did this so I wasn’t making a big deal out of it,” she explained on Instagram Stories.
But the former skier soon realized something was seriously wrong.
“Then I realised I still couldn’t breathe properly and should probably go and get it checked out.”
Fans flooded the comments with messages wishing her a speedy recovery.
“Double ouch! Get well soon ❤️,” one person wrote.
Another added, “AHH that looks painful! Look after yourself!”
Former British Olympic diver Tom Daley also chimed in with a fitting response: “Diving is crazy!”
Alcott represented Great Britain in alpine skiing and later became a Winter Olympics commentator.
The accident came about six months after an emotional moment on television involving her longtime friend, American ski star Lindsey Vonn.
Alcott was working for BBC Sport during the 2026 Winter Olympics when Vonn suffered a frightening crash in the women’s downhill event in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.
Vonn had already been competing with a ruptured ACL after suffering an injury the week before.
Alcott became emotional while reporting from the scene.
“I actually feel guilty that I’m this emotional,” she said at the time, adding that she never imagined the story would end with Vonn lying motionless beside the course.
“This is an absolute nightmare,” she said.
Alcott has long praised Vonn, calling her a “pioneer of women’s skiing” and a “history maker.”
Now, after a frightening accident of her own, Alcott appears to be keeping her trademark humor intact while recovering from a vacation mishap that turned far more serious than she ever expected.